Understanding how to effectively address student alcohol use, especially the increasingly dangerous trends associated with binge drinking, has challenged virtually every educational institution across the country, including the University of Delaware.

Ilka Riddle, an alumna and former health unit leader and project director at the Center for Disabilities Studies, has been named director of the University of Cincinnati University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UC UCEDD). Riddle earned a master's degree and doctorate in human development and family studies from UD. She joined UC UCEDD last year as associate director. Riddle's areas of interest and research are health care transition of youth and young adults with developmental disabilities, improved access to health care and health promotion and addressing existing health disparities for individuals with disabilities.

YoUDee was ranked No. 1 in a BuzzFeed list of “somewhat strange but mostly awesome college mascots,” edging out the St. Louis University Billiken and the University of California, Santa Cruz, Banana Slug.

Honors

Ten UD mechanical engineering students recently competed in an international Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) competition in Lincoln, Neb. The competition involved the students putting a UD-created race car through stress tests of accelerating and braking, skid pads, autocross and endurance. They also competed in presentations on budget, design and marketing, and safety and race rule compliance. For the second year in a row, the UD team was one of only 27 teams to finish the event from among 80 competitors. The UD club car group is advised by Steven Timmins, instructor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. FSAE team members who participated in the competition included: Matthew Aldridge, Christopher Bradley, Benjamin Brust, Stephen Hale, Robert Heebner, Robert Hopkins, Robert Iannaccone, Stephen Rosenkrantz, Thomas Zambeno and David Zipf. A video about the project can be found on YouTube.

Kaleigh Reno, a doctoral student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, won first place in the student poster award competition at the American Chemical Society’s annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference on June 20 for her poster titled “Getting a Handle on Vanillin: Green Modifications.” Her research focuses on using green materials such as lignin and plant oils to replace highly toxic chemicals such as styrene, PVC, Bisphenol A, TDI and others found in plastics. If successful, the work could help eliminate the industry’s independence on fossil fuels and reduce health-related concerns, and could also benefit related industries such as the fashion industry. Reno is advised by UD chemical and biomolecular engineering professors Thomas H. Epps, III, and Richard Wool. Her conference travel was supported through a National Science Foundation travel award.

Presentations

Carla Guerrón Montero, associate professor of anthropology and director of the Latin American and Iberian Studies Program, presented the paper “A Critical Look at the State of Tourism Studies in Anthropology in Latin America: Theory, Practice, and Praxis” at the Fifth International Critical Tourism Studies Conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia, June 25-28. The conference is organized by the Critical Tourism Studies (CTS) group, a world network of scholars who share a vision of producing and promoting social change in and through tourism practice, research and education.

Mark Samuels Lasner, senior research fellow, Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, presented at the Providence Athenaeum in connection with the "Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion" exhibition at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, May 10-11, Providence, R.I.

Publications

Sheldon D. Pollack, professor of law in the Department of Accounting and MIS, has published an article, “Origins of the Modern Income Tax, 1894-1913,” in volume 66 of The Tax Lawyer (pp. 295-330) (Winter 2013), published by the Tax Section of the American Bar Association. The article recounts the politics behind the ratification of the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the enactment of the federal income tax in 1913.

Service

University Museums hosted a tour for incoming Delaware State University freshmen participating in DSU’s Summer Bridge Program. The students visited the UD campus on June 25, viewing the two exhibitions in Old College – “Gertrude Käsebier: The Complexity of Light and Shade” and “Common Threads: A Century of Fashion through a Woman’s Eyes.” The tour was led by Martha Hall, a recent UD fashion and apparel studies graduate who assisted in creating the “Common Threads” exhibition, and Ivan D. Henderson, University Museums curator of education. The students will be asked to complete essays about what they saw in the exhibitions. They were led by Jermaine M. Clarke of DSU’s Office of University Studies and First Year Programs, who said after the visit that the university was able to achieve its objective of having the students “think outside of the box and appreciate the art.” Henderson said DSU students have visited the UD campus on the tours for the past three years.

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